And we want to continue looking at this
wonderful key that God has given us to
open every door on earth, the key of
praising God.
God is a good God.
Every single thing that He does and allows
to come into our lives is designed for
our very best.
Some of it may be painful, and we
may not understand it.
But it's designed for our very best.
You know, just like our children, who don't
understand sometimes what's good for them.
When you force your child to go to
school on a Monday morning, your four-year
-old child or five-year-old child, that
child doesn't understand.
The child would rather stay at home and
play or sleep or something like that.
But he doesn't understand that what you're forcing
him to do is good for him.
In the same way, many things that God
allows in our life, we may not understand
because we are immature.
But they are all designed for our good.
It's only the devil who is out to
destroy us.
Jesus came to earth and exposed two things.
One, He exposed the tremendous goodness of our
Heavenly Father.
And He exposed the thoroughly evil nature of
the devil who seeks to deceive us in
so many ways.
There's a verse in Isaiah 61 which tells
us the ministry that Jesus came to accomplish.
In fact, Jesus quoted this passage in Luke
chapter 4, in the very first sermon that
He preached in the synagogue in Nazareth.
Here it says, The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me, because the Lord has
anointed me.
And what has the Lord, the Father, anointed
Jesus to do?
To bring good news to the oppressed.
To bind up the brokenhearted.
To proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom
to the prisoners.
You know, Jesus came to set people free.
The devil has come into the earth to
bring people into bondage.
But Jesus came to set people free.
And He has also come, Jesus, to grant
those who mourn in Zion to give them
a garland instead of ashes.
And the oil of gladness instead of mourning.
And the mantle of praise instead of the
spirit of fainting.
Jesus has come to give us the oil
of gladness and the mantle of praise.
A garment of praise instead of the spirit
of heaviness and depression.
Do you know that the spirit of heaviness
is not from God?
It's something the devil tries to put upon
you like a garment.
You must just shake it off.
You must say in Jesus' name, I resist
you, Satan.
You can't put any depression on me.
I resist you.
I have been crucified with Christ.
The blood of Jesus has cleansed my past
life completely.
My guilt is gone.
You can't accuse me anymore, Satan.
Say these words to the devil.
And reject that spirit of heaviness and depression
that Satan tries to put upon you.
Jesus has come to cast out that spirit
from your life permanently.
And not just cast it out and leave
you naked.
If He leaves you naked, that clothing of
depression will come back on you again.
No, He clothes you instead with a garment
of praise.
That's what it says here.
The garment of praise instead of the spirit
of heaviness.
Isn't that wonderful?
Now, if you can believe this, it's really
true.
It is not the will of God that
we should be depressed or discouraged or in
a bad mood at any time.
It may come like a temptation and we
should shake it off.
And God will help us to shake it
off.
See, the Bible says in 1 John chapter
2 and verse 6.
It's a very important verse.
I don't know how many of you know
it.
1 John 2 verse 6 says that the
one who says he abides in Christ must
walk as Jesus walked.
In other words, if you say you're a
Christian, the Living Bible says it, puts it
like this.
You must live as He lived.
That's our calling, to live as He lived,
to walk as He walked.
Was Jesus ever depressed?
Was He ever discouraged or in a bad
mood at any time?
No, never.
But one thing about Jesus' life, He took
up the cross.
Every day He took up the cross.
And He followed in His Father's will every
day.
Now, if we choose that way, this verse
will be fulfilled in our life, not just
occasionally, but every single day, a garment of
praise instead of the spirit of heaviness.
Oil of gladness instead of mourning.
It's a wonderful life.
Let me turn you to another psalm.
In Psalm 8 and the second verse, we
read this statement which Jesus quoted once in
the temple when the little children were shouting
and praising God, as we read in Matthew
21, 15 and 16.
You know, when they held palm branches and
lay their clothes down on the road for
Jesus to ride on a donkey into Jerusalem.
At that time when Jesus came into the
temple, the children there were yelling and shouting,
Hallelujah, Hosanna to the Son of David.
And the chief priests, who did not like
a lot of noise and all, they believed
that the only way to worship God was
quietly, seriously, as though a funeral were going
on.
There are people who think like that even
today, you know, that the only proper way
to praise God is quietly and solemnly, as
though you were sitting in a funeral.
Now, I believe with all my heart that
there is a way of praising God in
silence.
But there is also praise that is acceptable
to God that comes forth in shouts of
joy.
The Bible says that.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.
We worship God with shouts of praise and
also in solemn silence.
It's not just always one or always the
other.
But here, it was absolutely proper for the
children to be excited and to praise God.
Have you ever seen how people praise those
who have just won a cricket match, for
example, say India versus Pakistan and cricket match
going on.
India has won.
Can you picture how that stadium erupts in
excitement?
Now, why is it that Christians don't seem
to be excited over the fact that Jesus
has forgiven their sin, that Jesus has defeated
the devil, that Jesus overcame everything on the
cross, that Christ is returning in glory and
He is going to set up His kingdom
on the earth?
People sit with long faces in God's presence.
Jesus was thrilled to hear the noise of
praise.
And so, when the chief priests criticized those
little children praising God, Jesus quoted Psalm 8
and verse 2.
He said, haven't you read that it says
in the Bible, From the mouth of infants
and nursing babes thou hast established strength because
of thine adversaries to make the enemy and
the revengeful cease.
So what do we read there?
That praise is the means by which God
shuts the mouth of the enemy.
That's very important for us to understand.
It's through praising God that the mouth of
the devil is shut.
And very often you can't shut the mouth
of the devil in your life or your
home because you don't praise God.
The devil hates praise, I'll tell you that.
He hates praise in a home, he hates
praise in a life, he hates praise in
a church.
And that's why he makes people so grumpy
and long-faced and grumbling and complaining most
of the time because then he can rule
in their lives and in their homes.
Satan cannot stand the shouts of sincere praise
to God.
That's why he can't stay in heaven.
Because in heaven every angel is yelling and
shouting praises to God and how can the
devil stand around there?
And he can't stand around in any church
where everybody is praising and shouting and thanking
God.
I'll tell you that, he can't.
He can't be in a home where people
are praising God.
He can't sit in a life or in
a heart where people are praising God.
Jesus was so excited when he saw those
little children praising God because that reminded him
of his home, heaven.
You know, Jesus was used to living in
heaven for eternity where he heard the angels
praising God with a voice like loud thunders.
And then when Jesus came to earth and
he lived in Nazareth and he saw so
many people grumbling, complaining, long-faced, well, he
felt sad.
But then now and then he would see
a situation like this where the children are
shouting and praising God.
It reminded him of his heavenly home.
But those religious people, they just couldn't understand
that.
They couldn't stand that type of praise.
What does that prove?
They were actually in fellowship with the devil.
The devil hated that praise and those religious
people hated that praise.
How is it in your life?
Do you give room to the devil by
a spirit of grumbling and complaining?
What did we read in Psalm 8?
Through that expression of praise that came from
the mouth of infants, it established strength to
make the enemy shut his mouth and to
make the revengeful person cease.
And there, when we look around at Christians
today, we can see how Satan has succeeded
everywhere.
In most places, he does it in two
ways.
Either he will stop the shouts of praise
altogether, and that's what he's done in many
homes, many churches, many lives.
There is no shout of praise.
And if he doesn't succeed there, then he's
got another technique.
And that is, where people are praising God,
he will make them insincere.
That means they will say it with their
mouths, but it's not true in their hearts.
So both ways he succeeds.
So you have some churches where they don't
praise God at all, and some other churches
where it's only a ritual and it's not
something which is true in their life all
the time, just Sunday morning, praise God.
And then the devil succeeds in both these
churches.
But what is God looking for?
He's looking for churches, homes, individuals like you,
who are determined to drive the devil right
out of your life, your home and your
church by sincere praise.
Why does Satan hate the sincere praise to
God?
Because, as we saw in Psalm 8, that
is how he is going to lose his
power over you.
Now, empty shouts of praise that don't come
from a holy life, that don't come from
a sincere heart, they don't have any power.
No.
But if it comes from a heart that's
really committed to God, there's tremendous power in
it.
You know, when the Israelites worshipped the golden
calf, and they called it Jehovah, and they
shouted to that Jehovah, or what they called
Jehovah, Moses and Joshua heard it at such
a long distance away.
But that wasn't real praise.
It was empty.
It was hollow.
There was immorality in the midst of that
praise.
And that can happen today.
People can praise God with a loud voice,
and there can be immorality in the midst
of all that praise to Jesus.
But where it comes from sincerity, there you
can be absolutely certain, it's powerful to drive
the devil right out.
Why don't you practice it from today?